Kids are back in school and trying to get them to eat healthy snacks can be a challenge. However, not impossible! Adding delicious California raisins to your dishes will not only ad loads of flavor, it will pack a powerful nutrition punch as well! California Raisins are an all-natural, dried-by-the-sun fruit you can feel good about sending with your kids as they head back to school or offering as an after-school snack. The ingredient list says it all: Raisins.
Here are a few ways you can add California raisins to your back to school snacks...
1. Add them to any trail mix or granola recipe.
2. Add them to a bread recipe (see mine below).
3. Make ants on a log. It is so simple. Just spread some peanut butter on celery and your California raisins ... "ants" ... are in a line on top of the peanut butter.
4. Make it simple and just have them on the go! California Raisins are a great choice for wholesome, healthy, on-the-go snacking. They are a great value, too! According to the USDA, … [Read more...]

I didn't discover the Reese's peanut butter cup until high school. And I didn't like them until college. This is the sad truth. Somewhere in the first few weeks of my pregnancy with my son, I began to CRAVE peanut butter cups. I thought about them too much. And being a fan of homemade versions, I scoured the internet for DIY Reese's peanut butter cup recipes. Some people make perfect replicas, and really quite impressive to look at. Mine is not fancy--but it is addictive. ... and delicious. They also taste good at room temperature, frozen, and refrigerated. It doesn't matter. Every bite is pure bliss.
The list of ingredients for my version of a Reese's peanut butter cup are simple: peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, graham crackers, and chocolate. Nothing complicated. Plus, I happened to have all the ingredients on hand in bulk because of a failed attempt at a family getaway last weekend. You see, this past weekend my husband subjected me to something awful: staying in a one … [Read more...]

Everyone has heard of banana bread and carrot cake and coconut cream pie and pineapple upside down cake. But it takes a very special someone to introduce you to Hummingbird Cake. Hummingbird Cake is like the child prodigy of the aforementioned desserts. What would happen if all four got married and had kids? Hummingbird Cake would happen, a cake so moist and delightful that it will make you think of its rare and precious namesake, a hummingbird. Who doesn't love spotting one? Now you'll love it even more because it will remind you of this cake. Deliciously flavorful, light and airy, and perfectly poised between guilt and guileless. If you like banana, pineapple, coconut, and even pecans, than this is the dessert for you. And if you aren't a fan of cream cheese icing you can just omit it at the end.
On a recent visit to Texas, I took a trip down memory lane and reinvented this yummy cake in the form of Hummingbird Cupcakes. It was too fatiguing to think about greasing and flouring … [Read more...]